Cascades Inc.

Good morning. My name is Sylvie, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Cascade 4th Quarter 2025 Financial Results Conference Call. Note that all lines are currently in the listen-only mode. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. I will now pass the call over to Jennifer Aitken, Director of Investor Relations for Cascad. Ms. Aitken, you may begin.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our fourth quarter 2025 conference call. We will begin with an overview of our operational and financial results, followed by some concluding remarks, after which we will begin the question period. Today's speakers will be Hugues Simon, President and CEO, and Alan Hogg, CFO. Before turning over the call, I would like to highlight that certain statements made during this call will discuss historical and forward-looking matters. The accuracy of these statements is factors that can have a material impact on actual results. These risks are listed in our public filings. These statements, the investor presentation, and the press release also include data that are not measures of performance under IFRS. Please refer to our Q4 2025 investor presentation. This presentation, along with our fourth quarter press release, is found in the investor section of our website. If you have any questions, please contact us after the session. I will now turn over the call to our CEO, Hugues Simon, who will begin with a review of our Q4 performance. Hugues?

Thank you, Jennifer, and good morning, everyone. Our four-quarter consolidated performance was in line with our projections. Forecasted sales and adjusted EBITDA levels both decreased marginally from Q3 levels, expecting usual softer volumes in the current geopolitical environment. Our key focus initiatives continue to deliver good results, our Bear Island facility averaging 88% total capacity during the quarter, while running at a lower average basis weight. We have also successfully reached our capacity speed targets in all of our grades. Our prior Oklahoma facility made significant progress during the quarter, increasing its total output by 11% from Q3 last year. Globally, our overall margin improved to 12.9%, led by a 17.4% margin in our packaging sector. Year-over-year consolidated sales decreased 1%. It was driven by lower volumes in packaging, which fully offset pricing and favorable mixed benefits in both segments. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA of $155 million increased 9%, reflecting lower corporate costs. We continue to remain focused on our balance sheet, allocating free cash flow to reduce our debt. The SEND net debt decreased by $127 million sequentially and leverage decreased to 3.3 times from 3.6 times at the end of Q2. The full year sales increased to $4.8 billion and adjusted EBITDA increased 15% to $576 million on a consolidated basis, expecting a solid improvement from our packaging segment. EBITDA margins increased 140 basis points 12.1% for the year. We provide a more detailed breakdown of factors that impacted results, sequentially and year-over-year, on slide 5. Trends continue to be favorable for raw material costs in Q4. We provide an overview of average quarterly costs and trends on slide 6 and 7. Moving now to the results of our business segments, which are highlighted on slide 8 through 13. Beginning with packaging, our four-quarter sales decreased 5% sequentially, in addition to usual softer seasonal volumes. This reflects lower average selling prices, driven by changes in customer and sales mix for the converted products. Notwithstanding this, our box shipments increased 1.5%, outperforming the industry's 2.4% decrease. Four-quarter adjusted EBITDA decreased 3% sequentially, to $132 million, in line with expectations. Driven by the volume and selling price factors that I just discussed, offset by benefits from lower operating and raw material costs. EBITDA margins improved sequentially to 17.4% from 17.1% in Q3. We had a solid quarter at our barrel and facility, in addition to running the mill at 88% of its total production capacity, We increased production levels of lower-basis white paper by 7% sequentially, a key differentiating factor from an industry perspective, while remaining focused on machine availability. We do continue to see this positive operational pace in early 2026. Year-over-year sales in this business decreased by 3%, driven by lower volumes that reflect the permanent closure and or sales of traditional utilities, and a decrease in corrugated shipments following strong demand in the year-ago period. Higher selling prices and favorable mix partially offset these impacts. Just a dividend was tabled year-over-year as selling price and raw material cost tailwinds fully offset volume-related impacts. Margins improved to 17.4% from 16.9% last year. Before moving to tissues, I'd like to say that we're pleased with the growing resiliency of profitability levels in this segment. Improvements made to our cost and organizational structures are being captured and are helping to offset cost inflation and other external headwinds. Initiatives we've put in place are gaining traction, key amongst which is ensuring that the right product is produced on the right equipment. This, along with other decisive actions we're taking, are positioning Cascade to be more resilient in an ever-changing business environment. Moving now to our tissue segment. Four-quarter results were below expectations. In addition to efficiency and logistics execution falling short of our targets, our North Carolina WIG RAM facility experienced a major electrical outage. These factors reduced output, increased operational support requirements, and required our network volume to be redirected to other plants, increasing logistics costs. Sales in this segment decreased by 1% sequentially, driven by a 3% decrease in away-from-home market that reflects expected seasonality, partially offset by a slight increase in the retail market. The segment adjusted EBITDA of $42 million decreased 9% sequentially, While lower raw material costs were a tailwind, benefits were more than offset by higher operating costs, as well as negative volume, which includes effects related to the power outage at our away ground plant. Year-over-year sales increased 3%, driven by an 8% increase in retail and stable volume in away from home. The study bidda decreased 7% from last year, with benefits from raw material costs Volume and higher selling prices offset by higher operating costs. While we're disappointed with quarterly results in this business, countermeasures already in place to strengthen our operation are gaining traction. Temporary challenge at the Waygram facility should also not overshadow the good progress being made at our prior Oklahoma mill. Efficiency improvement initiatives at this facility are generating benefits, and helped drive the 11% sequential increase in converting production in Q4. Similarly, our recent investments in our Kingsley Falls and Granby facilities are delivering good results. We are confident that the actions we have taken will successfully strengthen this business, both from a profitability and cash flow generation standpoint. I will now pass the call to Alan, who will briefly discuss some of the financial highlights. Alan?